Business news for Mon, 17 Dec 2007 & with word cost. 11 news.

CONSUMER prices in China are expected to fall significantly next year while consumption may replace export and investment to become a major driver of the country's economy, Deutsche Bank said. In a report released yesterday, the bank maintains the forecast of a modest slowing in the nation's gross domestic product to 10.4 percent in 2008 from 11.5 percent this year, according to its December issue of Asia Economics Monthly. "We expect CPI (consumer price index) inflation to fall visibly to an average of 3.8 percent next year, down from the 6.5 percent year on year in October and an average 4.6 percent in 2007." The German bank made its projection based on several trends highlighted recently by the National Development and Reform Commission: - Inflation has been mainly driven by food items and is structural in nature, although international and cost factors also played a role. - This year's domestic wheat and rice output has grown and will be sufficient to meet

WHEAT rose above US$10 a bushel for the first time yesterday, leading other grains and oilseeds higher in a food price spiral that threatens global economic growth. Chicago wheat futures jumped as much as 30 US cents, or 3.1 percent, to US$10.09 as dry weather threatened crops in Argentina, renewing concern that the world's farmers may not be able to grow enough to meet rising demand for bread, pasta and livestock feed. Rice also advanced to a record, while soybeans reached the highest price in 34 years and corn reached a nine-month peak, said Bloomberg News. Rising prices of food and fuel are stoking inflation and making it more difficult for central bankers to lower interest rates. Kellogg Co, the largest United States cereal maker, General Mills Inc, Nissin Food Products Co and Kikkoman Corp are among companies that have raised prices. "We are seeing a broad-based increase in cost pressures," Brian Redican, senior economist at Macquarie Group Ltd, said from

An unfortunate delay on a BA flight leads Philip Stephens to think that the airline has perhaps caught BAA's disease, sacrificing customer satisfaction to ever deeper cost cuts

Voracious demand for books and a crackdown on small, polluting paper mills have caused a paper shortage in China. So far the problems have been largely confined to China, but experts say that if the trend is unchecked, publishers worldwide could find themselves paying higher costs.

The cost of bailing out IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG could top $7.25 billion if conditions in the global market deteriorate, the chief executive of KfW Bankengruppe said Monday in an interview with a German newspaper.

Nintendo is set to miss out on an estimated $1.3 billion ($£650 million) in sales this Christmas by failing to meet demand for its Wii video games console.

An interesting note: Charles Dumas, global strategist for Lombard Street Research, says the bulls are deluding themselves. "The long-run real return on commodities is negative, except for oil where it has been nil for one and a half centuries. So much for the idea that the oil companies have us all over a barrel (sorry). If there were in fact any form of monopoly or oligopoly in the oil markets then they'd do a great deal better than simply covering their cost of capital over the decades. The fact that they don't is evidence that there is no such mon-

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Compton Petroleum said it's "puzzled" by a request from a shareholder representing 19.8% of its capital -- Centennial Energy Partners, according to an SEC filing -- to consider strategic alternatives. "The current business environment for Compton and the Canadian natural gas industry at large is challenging to say the least. Our current share price reflects the depressed state of the natural gas industry, particularly in Alberta, resulting from (a) low natural gas prices, (b) the rapid appreciation of the Canadian dollar, (c) the high cost structure of the basin, and (d) regulatory issues including uncertainties relating to the proposed new Crown royalty structure in Alberta," it said. The company said it is bullish on the outlook for natural gas and is confident that its longer-term strategy is sound and achievable.

RALEIGH - Even as state lawmakers begin tallying up the multibillion-dollar cost of corporate incentives now in play, a six-term legislator has launched a campaign to stop cutthroat business recruiting practices among states.

This report, from what I understand, was done without weighting properly the continuing deterioration in the US dollar.

The City of London police action is the result of growing official concern about the impact of 'boiler room' share scams that cost British investors at least ?150m a year